He peers though smoke,

Through blood and earth

The history of men

Not yet written

An instant of sojourn

Standing alone, amid so many

Death; a lone companion

A respite quickly lived,

An enemy encountered,

To meet unwilling mortality

And face his.

The seductive abyss

Waits for none,

But summons all.

Another invites cold steel,

And he submits. Will not one?

Entertain an invitation,

He desires,

Briefly sought, countless

More—greet the temptress.

The darkness parts, hopeful

Gleam, brightness

In a portrait of black.

Fleeting grace of silence

Bask, in a pale clarity

Replied in turn,

With another stroke, to end

The hope, that somewhere,

In that field of black and red

Chanced by faintest light,

That the dream may end.